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Stephen Roy White

  • Associate Professor, Theatre Production

Education

  • MFA, Stage Design, Northwestern University
  • BFA, Technology & Design, Illinois Wesleyan University

Biography

Stephen Roy White is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Midwest based theatrical designer, and a USA member.  Professor White’s research has focused on color mixing and color perception, and he was selected as a participating artist for ‘Color Shifts: A Virtual Exhibition’, presented at the Inter-Society Color Council’s Color Impact 2025 conference.

Selected professional lighting and/or scenery design credits include Paint Me this House of Love, Arcadia and Silent Sky at Burning Coal in Raleigh, NC.; Chapatti, The Train Driver, Detective’s Wife and Lobby Hero at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre; Zombies From the Beyond at Skylight Music Theatre; The Angel Next Door, Trying, Talley’s Folly, Murder For Two, Silent Sky, Wait Until Dark, Making God Laugh, Heroes, The 39 Steps, The Tin Woman, A Little Night Music at Peninsula Players; National Veterans Theatre Festival at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; and Othello Deployed, and And Comes Safe Home with Feast of Crispian – “Shakespeare With Veterans”.

Recent University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee design credits include Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; Scapino!; Dames at Sea; H.M.S. Pinafore; You on the Moors Now; Macbeth; All Night Strut; Hamlet; Trojan Women; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play; The Tempest.

Professor White is a longtime member of United States Institute for Theatre Technology and part of the leadership team for the Lighting Commission.  His poster “Color Revisited: Is Everything We Learned About Color in Kindergarten Still True” was selected for presentation at USITT’s Annual Conference in Columbus, Ohio in March 2025.

Links

Recent & Selected Works

Person sits on couch holding papers behind a coffee table in a staged living room set with door, side table, and coffee maker.
‘Paint Me This House of Love’ by Chelsea Woolley, Burning Coal Theatre Company, Director: Flora Bare, Scenic & Lighting Design: Stephen Roy White, Costume Design: Beth Gargan, photo: SRW
Stage set of an apartment: a person reclines on a couch under dim light, with kitchen and window backdrop and furniture arranged around a coffee table.
‘Barefoot in the Park’ by Neil Simon, Peninsula Players, Director: Linda Fortunato, Scenic Design: Lindsay Mummert, Costume Design Rachel Lambert, Lighting Design: Stephen Roy White
Actors on stage in period costumes; one writes in a book in the foreground while others stand by wooden tables under dim lighting.
‘Silent Sky’ by Lauren Gunderson, Burning Coal Theatre Company, Director: Rebecca Holderness, Scenic Design: Ao Li, Lighting Design: Stephen Roy White, Costume Design: Lauren Bevams, photo: unknown

Artistic Exhibitions & Artwork

  • White, Stephen. ‘Color Shifts, A Virtual Exhibition, Color Impact 2025: Color As Communication’. June 16-18, 2025, Inter-Society Color Council, Rochester, NY, https://iscc.org/CI25-Color-Exhibition
  • White, Stephen. 'Color Revisited'. March 7, 2025. USITT Conference, Columbus, OH.

Artistic Works & Performances

  • 'Paint Me This House of Love' by Chelsea Wooley, US Premier. Scenic and Lighting Design, Burning Coal Theatre, 2025.
  • 'Barefoot in the Park' by Neil Simon. Lighting Design, Peninsula Players Theatre, 2025.
  • 'The Angel Next Door' by Paul Slade Smith, Midwest Premier. Lighting Design, Peninsula Players Theatre, 2024.
  • 'Arcadia' by Tom Stoppard. Scenic Design, Burning Coal Theatre, 2023.
  • 'Trying' by Joanna McClelland Glass. Lighting Design, Peninsula Players Theatre, 2023.
  • 'Silent Sky' by Lauren Gunderson. Lighting Design, Burning Coal Theatre, 2022.
  • 'Murder for Two' by Joe Kinosian & Kellen Blair. Lighting Design, Peninsula Players Theatre, 2022.
  • 'Romance in D' by James Sheridan. Lighting Design, Peninsula Players Theatre, 2021.
  • 'Talley's Folly' by Lanford Wilson. Lighting Design, Peninsula Players Theatre, 2021.